Premarket London: WPP Announces Buyback; Ocado/M&S JV Sales Strong

Investing.com — Here is a summary of the most important regulatory news releases from the London Stock Exchange on Thursday, 12th December. Please refresh for updates.

Advertising group WPP (LON:) said it had instructed Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) to buy back up to 300 million pounds worth of its stock.

That’s just less than 2.5% of the company’s outstanding shares and represents a quarter of what has been authorized by WPP (LON:) shareholders.

• Marks & Spencer’s (LON:) joint venture with Ocado (LON:) said it raised revenue by 10.8% in year-on-year terms in the 13 weeks to Dec.

• The average order size was stable at 104.90 pounds ($136)
• The company noted that its new customer fulfilment center at Erith outside London has ramped up to 70,000 orders per week, with better efficiency than its one in Hatfield. Further increases in capacity are planned.
• • Rio Tinto (LON:) said it would consider its options after Australia’s Takeover Panel struck down its proposal to pay for the clean-up of a uranium mine site in the country’s Northern Territory.
  • Rio had proposed to underwrite an offer to raise A$476 million ($324 million) for the clean up, but the panel argued that the terms of the issue amounted to a highly dilutive deal aimed at making it easier for Rio to squeeze out minorities.
  • Under the terms of its license, Energy Resources of Australia is required to end mining and processing activities at the Ranger mine by January 2021 and complete final rehabilitation by January 2026.

  Infrastructure group John Laing (LON:)said full-year profit will be slightly below expectations, due to a 47 million pound hit from lower-than-expected power prices, tax changes and the broader weakness of the economy.

  In addition, it said that sterling’s appreciation in the second half of the year would depress the asset value of its portfolio by some 50 million pounds.

• Electricals retailer Dixons Carphone (LON:) reported a 60% drop in adjusted pretax profit in the six months to Oct. 26, to 24 million pounds, citing expected losses at its mobile phone business
• The company repeated its previous full-year guidance and stressed that the current fiscal year would be the trough for the mobile business, which it expects to break even by 2022.
• Engineering group Balfour Beatty (LON:) said group operating profit is running ahead of expectations and predicted its order book will top 14 billion pounds by the end of the year, up 11% from 2018.
• Revenue is expected to be up 5% from 7.8 billion pounds last year.
• CEO Alex Baldock said that the market remains challenging but added that it had gained “significant” market share, including in online sales.

Property developer Hammerson (LON:) said it has completed the sale of its 75% stake in Italie Deux, a retail space in Paris, to AXA Investment Managers for 362 million pounds.

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